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Florida superintendents were advised Thursday by the state to nix their Advanced Placement Psychology classes unless they exclude any topics related to gender or sexuality, according to The College Board, which oversees the AP program.

"We are sad to have learned that today the Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state by instructing Florida superintendents that teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law," the College Board said. "The state has said districts are free to teach AP Psychology only if it excludes any mention of these essential topics."

The state education agency in a statement blamed the last-minute change on the College Board's refusal to comply with Florida law, saying the organization was forcing school districts to prevent students from taking the class.

"The Department didn't 'ban' the course," Deputy Director of Communications Cassie Palelis wrote. The class is still listed in Florida's Course Code Directory for the 2023-2024 year.

"We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly," she said. "The other advanced course providers (including the International Baccalaureate program) had no issue providing the college credit psychology course."

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AP College Board playing politics

If they're teaching "gender affirming care," it's good for everyone that the program is shut down. Last thing we need is more crackpot psychologists.

This is yet another case where leftist activists make willfully myopic hyperbolic claims in order to try to manipulate politics by claiming a harm is being done.

I suspect in a clinical sense they are allowed to teach the course to AP seniors but are falsely claiming they are at some legal risk in doing so by overly broadly interpreting the law, just do they can complain it exists.

Either way, the officially adopted doctrine under the propagandist euphemism of "gender affirming care" is based on a LOT of junk science and conjecture with regards to costs versus benefits for the patients and it would be right to question its validity anyhow. Europe certainly has begun to do so.

There's AP exams and high schools teaching courses in Psychology?

Thread title is fake news

Should say:

AP Psychology effectively banned in Florida because of "educators" playing politics

This is coming to a church near you.

AP psychology? I think I'd just find someplace else to go

BMX Bandit said:

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Thread title is fake news

Should say:

AP Psychology effectively banned in Florida because of "educators" playing politics

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Exactly. Another leftist stunt.

This is like Obama closing down Mount Rushmore. Completely unnecessary and just to be dicks.

Texas and Florida should ban all AP courses until the AP removes the gender affirming care from their psychology tests. The loss of revenue from test takers from those two huge states would have them rolling over in short order.

psychology is controlled by leftists

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Development Committee Members:

• Kenneth Carter, PhD, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology, Oxford College of Emory University
• Elliott Hammer, PhD, John LaFarge Professor in Social Justice, Xavier University of Louisiana
• Gabriel Marquez, AP Psychology Teacher, Red Mountain High School (AZ)
• Daria Schaffeld, AP Psychology Teacher, Prospect High School (IL)
• Allison Shaver, AP Psychology Teacher, Plymouth High School (MA)
• Gabrielle Smith, PhD, Associate Professor, Texas Women's University
• Maria Vita, AP Psychology Teacher, Penn Manor High School (PA)
• Jason Young, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Chair, Thomas Hunter Honors Program, CUNY Hunter College

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Looks like $1.2M - $1.6M or so of "I didn't get my student loan debt forgiven by Biden and I'm throwing a passive agressive fit" to me.

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Last thing we need is more crackpot psychologists.

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Way too late. Psychology has the highest concentration of liberals and atheists in all of academia.

MouthBQ98 said:

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This is yet another case where leftist activists make willfully myopic hyperbolic claims in order to try to manipulate politics by claiming a harm is being done.

I suspect in a clinical sense they are allowed to teach the course to AP seniors but are falsely claiming they are at some legal risk in doing so by overly broadly interpreting the law, just do they can complain it exists.

Either way, the officially adopted doctrine under the propagandist euphemism of "gender affirming care" is based on a LOT of junk science and conjecture with regards to costs versus benefits for the patients and it would be right to question its validity anyhow. Europe certainly has begun to do so.

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This is why you just ignore them and carry on doing whatever it is they're calling hateful and oppressive. If you start to play their moral blame game you've already lost.

Also, take this from a guy with a psych degree...the less of that being taught the better. There's a lot of good work being done under the umbrella of neuroscience but in psychology you can get literally any study pushing woke published if you're clever about setting up your surveys and "experiments"

Florida has nice beaches. Plenty of sand to stick their heads in.
I would be pissed if I had a high schooler that was limited to the AP classes they could take and get potential college credit for it.

I swear DeSantis is Jonah Ryan from Veep.

swc93 said:

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Florida has nice beaches. Plenty of sand to stick their heads in.
I would be pissed if I had a high schooler that was limited to the AP classes they could take and get potential college credit for it.

I swear DeSantis is Jonah Ryan from Veep.

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nothing desantis did limited any AP classes.

I took Psychology 101 to study wierdos. Thought it would be cool. Dadgum class ended up being a statistic class where you had to calculate the number times some bird pecked for food and studied how many times Pavlov's dog scratched for food. It was not fun.

Later took a Sociology class, called "Deviant behavior" where homos and such were a subgroup of cultures, or a subculture like gangs, criminals etc. (My how times have changed).

swc93 said:

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Florida has nice beaches. Plenty of sand to stick their heads in.
I would be pissed if I had a high schooler that was limited to the AP classes they could take and get potential college credit for it.

I swear DeSantis is Jonah Ryan from Veep.

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As a current Floridian with a high schooler and a teacher as a wife, its obvious you have no clue of the actual facts behind this story beyond what the MSM has spoonfed you, lol.

Martin Q. Blank said:

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Last thing we need is more crackpot psychologists.

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Way too late. Psychology has the highest concentration of liberals and atheists in all of academia.

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Psychology overwhelmingly appeals to people who are trying to figure out what's messed up with their own minds.

A whole lot of them are messed up BECAUSE they refuse foundational truths, objective reality, and torture logic in order to justify/excuse their positions.

The ideological capture is clear in that modern psychology boards would have been institutionalized en total by past psychologists for the idiocy they're espousing.


To me this says that a bunch of godless leftists who captured a field and say that thinking right is unhealthy… chose to fight back against Florida by saying that a college level of understanding cannot be credentialed without their curriculum of sexual perversion.

Academia is rotten and is poised for subversion. Credentials only matter insofar as people attribute value to them, and I'm expecting we'll see things like Khan Academy and Google Certificates rising up to the challenge. If we could kill the federal student loan program the whole racket would collapse in a couple years.

If Psychology can be taught in HS, even AP level, it makes me question the challenge level it poses at the college level

Aug 3 (Reuters) - Florida has told school superintendents that an Advanced Placement psychology course offered to high school students violates a new state law prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, the nonprofit that develops the courses said on Thursday.

"The Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state," the College Board said in a statement, referring to the guidance.

The move is the latest by the administration of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to limit instruction about LGBTQ issues and race in the state. DeSantis is challenging former U.S. President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 and has made battles over cultural issues a centerpiece of his campaign.


Seems pretty straight (pun intended) forward to me.

SpreadsheetAg said:

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If Psychology can be taught in HS, even AP level, it makes me question the challenge level it poses at the college level

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How is psychology any different from the other core college courses you can get credit for with AP?

swc93 said:

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Aug 3 (Reuters) - Florida has told school superintendents that an Advanced Placement psychology course offered to high school students violates a new state law prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, the nonprofit that develops the courses said on Thursday.

"The Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state," the College Board said in a statement, referring to the guidance.

The move is the latest by the administration of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to limit instruction about LGBTQ issues and race in the state. DeSantis is challenging former U.S. President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 and has made battles over cultural issues a centerpiece of his campaign.


Seems pretty straight (pun intended) forward to me.

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Take note of that key word I bolded...EFFECTIVELY. Its a favorite word of the liberal press to convince you something's happened which didn't really happen.

Florida has established standards for their courses. Meet those simple standards and the course is accepted to be taught. The AP board refused to meet FL's standards so the AP board is effectively banning their own course in FL.

And again, as a Floridian who has his ear pretty close to the ground on these issues, the vast majority of FL citizens agree with the state's standards in this particular instance (gender ideology, etc).

redcrayon said:

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SpreadsheetAg said:

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If Psychology can be taught in HS, even AP level, it makes me question the challenge level it poses at the college level

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How is psychology any different from the other core college courses you can get credit for with AP?

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It's not. I took a handful of AP STEM courses in the 90s and passed them fairly easily with A's - the GPA boost was nice; college-level courses were certainly a noticeable step up from HS back then; mostly due to the schedule and approach of University regimen (you're on your own) vs HS (quasi-spoonfed ; everyday rigor).

Frankly, I think our universities at large are dumbed down and lowered standards / rigor from 25-35 years ago in order to boost admissions and $$$ revenue. Can't make a profit if everyone is disqualified or fails out. I posit that Colleges are trending toward glorified High Schools and have been for a while.

As a psychology major, I fully support this. The only psychology related topics that teenagers should be learning in HS are coping strategies for dealing with their stressors so they don't turn into big snowflakes.

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Frankly, I think our universities at large are dumbed down and lowered standards / rigor from 25-35 years ago in order to boost admissions and $$$ revenue.

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Absolutely no doubt about it.

Social sciences have always been heavy on the social and light on the science. Social and political are pretty intertwined these days, but if you look back you'll often see politics bleeding over into the social sciences the entire time.

Not saying the social sciences are unworthy of investigation - the pursuit of knowledge is its own reward - but to pretend they matter other than as a snap shot or look in the mirror of society is greatly exaggerating their importance.

Owlagdad said:

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I took Psychology 101 to study wierdos. Thought it would be cool. Dadgum class ended up being a statistic class where you had to calculate the number times some bird pecked for food and studied how many times Pavlov's dog scratched for food. It was not fun.

Later took a Sociology class, called "Deviant behavior" where homos and such were a subgroup of cultures, or a subculture like gangs, criminals etc. (My how times have changed).

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I thought you were going to say Pavlov's dog licked his nads.

SpreadsheetAg said:

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redcrayon said:

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SpreadsheetAg said:

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If Psychology can be taught in HS, even AP level, it makes me question the challenge level it poses at the college level

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How is psychology any different from the other core college courses you can get credit for with AP?

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It's not. I took a handful of AP STEM courses in the 90s and passed them fairly easily with A's - the GPA boost was nice; college-level courses were certainly a noticeable step up from HS back then; mostly due to the schedule and approach of University regimen (you're on your own) vs HS (quasi-spoonfed ; everyday rigor).

Frankly, I think our universities at large are dumbed down and lowered standards / rigor from 25-35 years ago in order to boost admissions and $$$ revenue. Can't make a profit if everyone is disqualified or fails out. I posit that Colleges are trending toward glorified High Schools and have been for a while.

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My son thinks A&M is much easier than the High School he attended. Less time pressure and distractions, profs are more helpful, longer timelines. He went to a highly competitive HS but I have heard the same thing from many of his friends, even though they weren't Top 10% kids all of them have 3.5s and above and an active social life. I know when I was at A&M back in the day I only knew a few people that even had above a 3.5, it was extremely rare and those who did were very smart and studied all the time.

BTW a big part of that is the internet and not lowered standards. It is SO MUCH easier to study now than it was then when you can have access to so much at your fingertips. You can get tutoring a dozen ways for different problems. You can research like crazy and get context without ever going to the library. You can look up prior tests and understand what profs will ask for and which profs are better or worse and what their grades were the prior Semester with little effort. You can just email your prof with a question and not have to hope you can catch them during their office hours. It's just a very different world.

I taught AP Psych for four years. Granted, I haven't taught the course since 2018, but I don't remember there being anything more than perhaps a sentence in the textbook about transgenderism or homosexuality or anything of the sort.

I genuinely don't even remember which chapter or unit it was a part of. We talked about it as a part of a discussion on hurdles teenagers are faced with. That's it.

This article makes it sound like there is an entire unit focused on this topic. Unless the course has been drastically revised I'm the last five years, that simply isn't the case.

Madagascar said:

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As a psychology major, I fully support this. The only psychology related topics that teenagers should be learning in HS are coping strategies for dealing with their stressors so they don't turn into big snowflakes.

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huh? High schoolers who know nothing of psychology outside of coping strategies are doomed. I'm not saying they need to be able to recite psych texts, but a basic understanding of what substances can do to a brain, ethical foundations, an ability to understand human behavioral drivers, an ability to recognize healthy vs unhealthy personalities…

I'm not saying those things must be taught exclusively in a psych class, but I'd argue that the "coping strategy" popularity is a bandaide on a sucking chest wound. Develop young people who are properly moored, and they'll ride through normal adversity without even noticing it. Develop men who can chew through the slings and arrows of life and they won't need to lean on "mental health breaks" and similar coping strategies.

SpreadsheetAg said:

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redcrayon said:

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SpreadsheetAg said:

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If Psychology can be taught in HS, even AP level, it makes me question the challenge level it poses at the college level

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How is psychology any different from the other core college courses you can get credit for with AP?

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It's not. I took a handful of AP STEM courses in the 90s and passed them fairly easily with A's - the GPA boost was nice; college-level courses were certainly a noticeable step up from HS back then; mostly due to the schedule and approach of University regimen (you're on your own) vs HS (quasi-spoonfed ; everyday rigor).

Frankly, I think our universities at large are dumbed down and lowered standards / rigor from 25-35 years ago in order to boost admissions and $$$ revenue. Can't make a profit if everyone is disqualified or fails out. I posit that Colleges are trending toward glorified High Schools and have been for a while.

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It's dumbed down quite a bit. Many colleges thought their retention rates were too low, so they developed "pathways to education" dumbing down the curricula.

Get Off My Lawn said:

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Madagascar said:

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As a psychology major, I fully support this. The only psychology related topics that teenagers should be learning in HS are coping strategies for dealing with their stressors so they don't turn into big snowflakes.

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huh? High schoolers who know nothing of psychology outside of coping strategies are doomed. I'm not saying they need to be able to recite psych texts, but a basic understanding of what substances can do to a brain, ethical foundations, an ability to understand human behavioral drivers, an ability to recognize healthy vs unhealthy personalities…

I'm not saying those things must be taught exclusively in a psych class, but I'd argue that the "coping strategy" popularity is a bandaide on a sucking chest wound. Develop young people who are properly moored, and they'll ride through normal adversity without even noticing it. Develop men who can chew through the slings and arrows of life and they won't need to lean on "mental health breaks" and similar coping strategies.

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First thing that popped into my mind when I read your response was...

"Hey Dad, will you teach me about your life experiences and how I should behave?"

"No, son. Just download the psychology app from the app. store and go through that."

"Thanks Dad!"

Anti-taxxer said:

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I taught AP Psych for four years. Granted, I haven't taught the course since 2018, but I don't remember there being anything more than perhaps a sentence in the textbook about transgenderism or homosexuality or anything of the sort.

I genuinely don't even remember which chapter or unit it was a part of. We talked about it as a part of a discussion on hurdles teenagers are faced with. That's it.

This article makes it sound like there is an entire unit focused on this topic. Unless the course has been drastically revised I'm the last five years, that simply isn't the case.

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Don't know about AP Psych, but AP Biology revamped their curriculum a few years ago. They dropped plants and body systems with the latter being why most students want to take the course. At least the aspiring healthcare students.

Kvetch said:

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If they're teaching "gender affirming care," it's good for everyone that the program is shut down. Last thing we need is more crackpot psychologists.

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Agreed. But if they are teaching normal gender and sexuality or gender confusion as a disorder, this AP Psychology is where it is appropriate to do so.